DUDDELL CLUB

We were recently invited by very good friends to yet another newly minted exclusive members only dining outlet ... the Duddell Club ... right above Shanghai Tang's flagship store on Duddell Street in Central.

The owners have invested heavily, not only on bricks and mortars, but the more esoteric end of modern living. We were surrounded, literally, by millions of dollars worth of original Chinese paintings, the ones that art museums sought to exhibit globally, we were told.  Being singularly illiterate in the art world, I have yet to decipher that link with what were presented on the table. It was simple Cantonese fare, dishes like soya sauce chicken (outstanding) to char sui (mediocre) to pan fried sea bass (which was sent back) ...  I am not playing Food Critic here, as I am not good enough to be a critic of anything other than my own amateurish home cooking at TKT.  What I described was the collective view of a party of 8 confirmed foodies in town.

Food aside, the Club is tastefully and beautifully appointed.  The dining floor is a large open space encircled by private rooms, a la China style. To me the winning stroke was upstairs where there is a super sexy bar, a quiet corner in the form of a library, where every book is immaculately positioned, sans dust, even the slanted ones ... lastly, the huge, breezy, green potted plant lined oasis in the form of an open balcony where the young, the beautiful, the wealthy 2nd or 3rd generation 'chill' as our not so young anymore offspring would say (and often do) ... now, this is where the big $ is, not from steamed minced pork patties with a solitary salted egg on top!